Roger Nichols, Celemony Honored with Technical Grammys

The Recording Academy® (www.grammy.com) announced its Special Merit Awards recipients today, and this year's selections are: Allman Brothers Band, Glen Campbell, Antonio Carlos Jobim,George Jones, the Memphis Horns, Diana Ross and Gil Scott-Heron as Lifetime Achievement Award recipients; Dave Bartholomew, Steve Jobs and Rudy Van Gelder as Trustees Award honorees; and Celemony and Roger Nichols as Technical GRAMMY Award® honorees. The special invitation-only ceremony will be held during GRAMMY® Week on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, and a formal acknowledgment will be made during the 54th Annual GRAMMYAwards telecast, which will be held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012, and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network. For breaking news and exclusive content, join the organization's social networks as a Twitter follower at www.twitter.com/thegrammys, a Facebook fan at www.facebook.com/thegrammys, and aYouTube channel subscriber atwww.youtube.com/thegrammys."This year's honorees offer a variety of brilliance, contributions and lasting impressions on our culture," said President/CEO of The Recording Academy Neil Portnow. "It is an honor to recognize such a diverse group of individuals whose talents and achievements have had an indelible impact on our industry."

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording while the Trustees Award recognizes such contributions in areas other than performance. Both awards are determined by vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of The Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees as well as The Academy's Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

ROGER NICHOLS Roger Nichols worked with artists such as Plácido Domingo, Diana Ross, James Taylor, and Stevie Wonder. In the 1970s he began a decades-long relationship with Steely Dan, which earned him six GRAMMY Awards including an Album Of The Year award for his engineering work on 2000's Two Against Nature. He also earned a Best Musical Album For Children GRAMMY in 1997 for producing the John Denver album All Aboard! In addition to his work as an engineer, he was an innovator in creating new technology for audio tape preservation, mastering and digital synchronization. A pioneer in the technique of digital drum replacement, his Wendel sampling computer is a technology still common in music production today.Roger Nichols was not only a major influence in the recording industry, he was a longtime member of our magazine family, contributing frequently to EQ and its sister publications over the years. To read our tribute to Roger Nichols, click HERE.

CELEMONYThe German-based company Celemonywas founded in 2000 by Peter Neubäcker, Dr. Hildegard Sourgens and Casrsten Gehle. The company specializes in the digital audio pitch-correction software known as Melodyne. The tool is used in studios to tune and manipulate audio signals, including a singer's vocals, or as an aid to the creation of backing vocals from an existing lead vocal. In 2008 Celemony debuted Direct Note Access, which allows independent manipulation of individual notes with chords and polyphonic recordings. The following year, Melodyne Editor won a.Musikmesse International Press Award for Most Innovative Product. To learn more about Celemony, click HERE